By:
Joe De Luna, Director of Tennis and Pickleball
What a year it has been at The Clubs of Cordillera Ranch Tennis and Pickleball Club! Despite the extreme temperatures this summer, the pickleball program continues to flourish with the addition of our six new LED lighted courts. Open play, lessons, clinics, camps and mixers are just the beginning of what is sure to be an awesome prelude to 2024.
Pickleball 101 has been a great way to introduce the fastest growing sport in America to our members. Spearheaded by Director of Tennis and Pickleball, Joe De Luna, and Head Pickleball Professional, Alejandro Chong, this program has allowed so many new players to learn the game and eventually transition into more competitive play through our Open Play groups and Mixers. Pickleball 101 teaches members the basic stroke production, fundamentals of scoring, court positioning and strategy.
As members progress in their skills and confidence, they transition into Open Play but often need to improve to keep up with more experienced players. This is where our intermediate and advanced clinics come in handy. Serving, dinking, drives and drop shots are all primary skills that our clinics focus on as well as court positioning, strategy and movement. Attending these clinics allows members to accelerate their learning curve and produce better results, which makes them more competitive and that makes pickleball more fun!
This year we introduced some fun and competitive Mixers with other clubs in the San Antonio area. San Antonio Country Club, The Dominion Country Club and Fair Oaks have all visited The Clubs of Cordillera Ranch Pickleball courts. These Mixers provide new players for our members to play and compete against in a relaxed and beautiful Club setting. New friends are made, and numbers and contacts are exchanged as our Cordillera Ranch members network with other pickleball lovers from other clubs in our area. We partner with our fellow members and mix it up with players from the other clubs using different scoring formats, timed rounds and some random pairings, which allow for great variety of play for all levels.
We look forward to these continued successful pickleball instruction and play days in 2024, and will explore new opportunities for our members to enjoy the fastest growing sport in the U.S. If you haven’t tried it, you need to! As always, stay strong and pickle on!
Joe De Luna is the Director of Tennis and Pickleball at The Clubs of Cordillera Ranch. He can be reached at jdeluna@cordilleraranch.com and 830.336.9004.
